A 79-page Department of Defense study claims that adoption of open source …

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The Open Technology Development road map, a recently authored government report, advises Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Sue Payton to integrate a comprehensive open source strategy into defense department procurement and development policies. Written by consultants for Advanced Systems & Concepts in collaboration with major technology companies and the Open Source Software Institute, the 79-page report advocates adoption of open technologies, support for and adherence to open standards, and discusses topics like licensing and software project governance.

The report argues that the standard practices associated with purchasing of physical goods are not adequate or fully applicable to software. According to the report, the DoD is "limiting and restricting the ability of the market to compete for the provision of new and innovative solutions and capabilities" by "treating DoD-developed software code as a physical good." The report also points out that utilizing open source technology will force the commercial software industry to respond with greater agility and competitiveness.

In addition to promoting open technology, the authors of the report feel that the DoD can improve interoperability while increasing efficiency and productivity by creating standard policies for internal redistribution of code developed by contractors. The report states that "by not enabling internal distribution, DoD creates an arbitrary scarcity of its own software code, which increases the development and maintenance costs of information technology across the Department."

The report strongly cautions against proprietary vendor lock-in and discusses at length how open standards can facilitate interoperability between open source and proprietary systems, explaining that the DoD "needs to evaluate the impact that locking into one set of proprietary standards or products may have to its ability to react and respond to adversaries and more importantly, to technological change that is accelerating regardless of military conflict."

That theme is particularly prevalent, and the report heavily emphasizes the need for technological agility in modern warfare, articulating various ways that open technology can help the United States military "remain competitive in a rapidly shifting technological landscape" and adequately defend against "the disruptive technologies leveraged by our adversaries."

The report is a positive sign of technological progress within the Department of Defense, but can the plan be implemented? There are sure to be stumbling blocks along the way, particularly in contexts where legacy proprietary systems have to be adapted to interface with modern, open systems. The report attempts to address some of these problems, but such things are more easily said than done. The plan certainly looks realistic, and it includes what appear to be well=reasoned deployment goals that are both clear and general.

The DoD study is also consistent with the results of other recent studies conducted by independent organizations in private industry. Market research group IDC has determined that open source software is gaining "enormous momentum" and constitutes the "most significant all-encompassing and long-term trend that the software industry has seen since the early 1980's." IDC's recent study determined that open source software is used by over 70 percent of all developers worldwide, and IDC senior vice president of global software research Anthony Picardi claims that "the real impact of open source is to sustain innovations in mature software markets, thus extending the useful life of software assets and saving customers money."

Open source software clearly has an important place in the future of software development in both the private and public sectors. In light of the FBI's costly repeated failures to modernize its own internal technology infrastructure, law enforcement agencies should take note of the advantages of open technology as described by Advanced Systems & Concepts in its report for the Department of Defense, and consider pursuing similar strategies.